The Rec Show Podcast
David “Gldnmnd” Hicks is a Beatmaker and Hip Hop culture participant/supporter based in the United States. On The Rec Show Podcast, Gldnmnd interviews Beatmakers/Music Producers/Composers from around the world, hearing stories of beat culture, musical journeys (past and present), musical exposures and music technology. Topics include music genesis, inspirations, music superheroes, Digital Audio Workstations vs. Analog gear, Discographies, Local Beat Scene/community views and more while listening to each guest’s instrumental music compositions. Tap In!
The Rec Show Podcast
Brooklyn Beats: The Cryptic One Story
“Be a homie & let us know what you think”
A graffiti writer turned full-time musician, Cryptic One weaves a tale of personal evolution and creative growth. He graciously shares how his journey from navigating the delicate balance between business and art to becoming a music producer and record label owner, shaped the artist he is today. He dives into his creative process, a masterful blend of record listening, keyboard and bass playing, and beat sketching. It doesn't stop there - Cryptic unveils his unique approach to merchandising, show planning, and his exciting upcoming projects.
This episode is teeming with insights. Get a taste of Cryptic One's unique perspective on the importance of connecting with fans, fair compensation for artists, and the impact of communities like Sidechain Society. From reminiscing about his father's record collection to discussing his latest album and the metaphor it stands for, this conversation unearths both the roots and the heights of Cryptic One's musical journey. Tune in to this heartfelt conversation, take away a newfound appreciation for Cryptic One and the world of hip hop.
Cryptic One talked about a few of his albums 'PIRATA', 'The Anti-Mobius Strip Theory', 'FYSM' and more. He left crazy jewels, inspiring words for Beatmakers and detailed what's in store for the rest of 2023 & 2024.
Cryptic One's Gems:
1. Be Yourself
2. Fail Forward
3. Watch 'Adult Rappers' Documentary
Intro Track: Music from "U & I" & "Fin" presented by COLDFINGERZ
Available Here: https://icecoldfingerz.bandcamp.com/album/just-landed
Featured Music: All music played from Cryptic One's Bandcamp Discography
Available Here: https://crypticone.bandcamp.com/
Social Media: @Cryp_Uno
Website: https://linktr.ee/cryp_uno
Edited, Mixed and Mastered by Gldnmnd
Podcast Website Link: The Rec Show Podcast
Subscribe to Our YouTube Channel: Press Here
What is that sound, you ask?
Speaker 3:Welcome to the Rec Show podcast, a show dedicated to beat makers around the world. Kick back, relax with the host.
Speaker 2:Golden Mind. What is that sound? You ask. What is that sound? You ask I, I, I, I, I, I, I. Okay, check, check, one, two piece in love. Everybody. Go to mine here for the wreck show Podcast man. Welcome to episode.
Speaker 2:I think this is episode one 12 and if I'm wrong I'll go back and post editing and change that. But yo, man, we got a special surprise man. Nobody knew this was coming. So y'all gonna be geeked out when y'all hear about my guests. But yo, two weeks ago we had the one and only DJ Boston man From roots to roots and branches Dot org. So I need y'all to go check out that episode.
Speaker 2:Man, sacramento, california, doing big things. Man, the way he thinks about his art, crazy man. The impact because he's a teacher, definitely even more impact man. So I need y'all to go ahead check that out on the YouTube channel, but then also on all the podcast DSPs, and Go ahead check out like I'm slowly. Right now I'm on episode number 78, so I'm working my way backwards to get all of the previous episodes uploaded to YouTube as well, so y'all will be able to check those out, slowly but surely before the end of the year. I'm working my ass off on these man.
Speaker 2:So one man band over here but yo, today we are going to Brooklyn, new York. He's a you know Brooklyn music producer, a DJ, a centrifugal force record label owner. Been producing music and writing like just intricate rhymes since the mid, late, mid to late 1980s man. So as long as I've been alive he been doing his thing. They interviewed from everyone like super duty, tough work, which is a super dope podcast man. I need y'all to check out I'm gonna link that in description to show as well Interviewed from like global beat, cypher swatches and boomboxes Never near podcast. That was a dope episode as well and plenty more man. So if you go to his link tree man, you'll see all of his, his, his interviews as well. He's been featured on band camp's best hip hop of 2021 list for the Parada album. And then also you can't leave this out man he's a member of the Adams family with Alaska sip one, paul Justin Ard, vast Ari I hope I'm saying that right vast Ari, vordul, mega and wind and breeze, which at one point have like 35 members, which is in the collector, which is crazy. That's not the hurdle. That's bigger than Wu Tang Yo. But and then he's also released some albums beyond human comprehension, which is also available at the Center Center of the web.
Speaker 2:Got ban cam calm man. So he's a lover of hip hop. He's been in this hip hop game for a very long time. I know he's got the jewels y'all and for a treat. He's also an active activist who's been on the front lines. You know when he had this, you know just big pro protests and Human rights. I ain't gonna say civil rights, I'm talking human rights violations, man. So Yo, he's been, he's seen some things, he's done some things. I need y'all to welcome the one and only cryptic one to this show. Cryptic one, thank you for being on the show.
Speaker 3:Welcome, oh man thank you for having me that. That was a long intro, man. I feel like I was learning stuff about myself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was hoping you do your research. I love it. Yes, sir, yeah, I got mama said come correct or don't come at all, man. So that's what I do, man, so, yeah, man. So thank you for being on. Show, man, how you feeling, how you doing today I'm feeling great, despite.
Speaker 3:Being on three hours sleep right now, but I'm here and, yeah, for some reason I still have energy, so I'll probably crash the second. This interview is over. I'm gonna hit the couch and pass.
Speaker 2:I got you, man. Thank you for. Thank you for giving me a little bit of your sleep time, because sleep time is super valuable.
Speaker 3:Yo, yeah, it's necessary, especially at this age. Yes, sir.
Speaker 2:Yo, man, so Listen. I only gave the listeners, man, the mutants are the, you know the beat verse, man, a little bit of your like, not the scography, but you're like your story man, just everything you've been doing, doing your biography. Is there anything that I've missed that you've done? Or Any collect on any other collectors that you've been, have been a part of, or anything like that? Um, yeah, man.
Speaker 3:I've been, like you said, I've been doing this for a long time. Um, I actually calculated it yesterday I've been making beats for 35 years, which is crazy for me. Um, so yeah, man, I've been a part of a lot of collectives. Um, there's a lot of stuff you missed, not Any slight on your research, but, like I've just been doing this long time, if you were to list everything that I've done over 30 years, that would probably be the whole podcast, right? So you hit hit a lot of major points. Um, adam's family was a big Um chunk of my history. Still cool with those guys was with, uh, just one art last night actually. Um, what else have I been a part of? I? Um, I did the score for a documentary called adult rappers came out in mid 2000, um, which I think it's a I don't want to say must watch, because I don't like telling people what to do, but I think it's valuable for anyone trying to.
Speaker 3:It's about rappers. But even if you're a beatmaker, anyone trying to make music, your career Um, kind of talks about, um, I guess, blue collar Rappers that were doing it for careers, because there was a period where I was just living off of music. Um, and it sounds glamorous, but it's, it's not. But, um, yeah, what else did you miss? I don't know, man, I make beats mostly. Now I still rap. Um, sidechain society is something that I'm a part of proudly. Uh, shout out to stolen drums for putting that whole thing together. Um. So, yeah, man, that's pretty much it. I guess we could fill in the blanks with questions and stuff, but yeah, I don't want to to take up the whole intro rambling about everything that I've done.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I, I definitely left a lot out, um, just because they're, you know, like you said, 35 years plus of of doing your thing, man mcn, and you know doing scores and and albums, and man, that's yo. Yeah, everybody says that, um, they want to do music, um, they want that to be their full-time job. Um, but I don't think they understand what goes into Making that happen, making that a reality, that the time that you have to spend the energy, the monetary resources, your energy resources, you know, I'm saying like what, what is it, um, that has kept you doing this for so long?
Speaker 3:Um, just just to clarify, I don't do it for a living anymore. Um, I have a, an actual job, mainly because of what you said, of how stressful it is to be a full-time musician, and the problem I had with that was it started affecting my art, you know, and, um, this is my therapy. Man Like this keeps me sane, um, in an insane world. So this is my outlet, it's, it's, it's not even a choice at this point is what I have to do, um, and I love it. So when it became a job, it became a job, you know, and and people don't love their jobs, you know, right, I, I actually was, I wasn't forced to, but I kind of like took a step back. So I stopped after I was doing it full-time for about five or six years. I completely left the scene. I just Cut music out of my life because it was so stressful, um, so I didn't make music for like four or five years and then, um, when I decided to come back that's why I mentioned that film that was instrumental in in me coming back um, the offer to do that, and it was just kind of um, I made a promise to myself that I was going to do this Only if I was enjoying it.
Speaker 3:In the second, I stopped enjoying it. I take a step back from the business side of it and Get back to what I love doing, and that's just making music and sharing it with people. So I try and find a healthy balance between the business and the art, um, but I want to lean more towards the art and um. It's a. It's an endless struggle, man. It's every day. I have to kind of remind myself, like when I get stressed about some business things that I didn't handle, um, I got to remind myself that this, this is supposed to be fun first and foremost. So, yeah, that that's. That's where I'm at.
Speaker 2:I got you. Yeah, man, like I, um. Yeah, I was listening to your story on um Super Duty, tough Word podcast, man, and just you talking about you know your resurgence, your, your um, your rebranding, like your reintroduction into um, creating um music, because you did take a step back, um, and I thought that was so, uh, critical when you were talking about it, because at some point, like Enough is enough you know what I mean Like the business side or whatever is going on, like something's gonna break um, and then, or you're carrying too much and you might have to like Put down something for a little while you know what I'm saying Just so you can get back your, your sanity, um, so I, I got to link that episode, man. That was a crazy episode, man. I appreciate um, prince, I think it's print um, and Then who else is on it? Logic, logic. Yeah, it was so, man, that was um, that was a. That was a Very good interview, man, um. But I gotta ask you this too cryptic one how did you even come up with that name?
Speaker 3:um, how did I come up with that name? It was uh, so I used to be a graffiti writer. This is gonna be kind of a long story, but I don't think I've ever told this story before I used to be.
Speaker 3:I used to be a graffiti writer and, um, or when I was Trying to become a graffiti writer, I should say I was just like scribbling letters on On paper trying to figure out like what my name was gonna be, and I gravitated towards certain letters and certain combinations of letters and that became what was my name at the time, which was it's terribly wack name, so please don't make fun of it. But it was called. I was fazy, it was p-h-a-z-e-e and when I started rapping, um, I used that also for my name and I kept writing raps that were, um, kind of coded, like I never said things in a straight up way. Like if I was gonna say, um, it's raining cats and dogs in a rap, I wouldn't say that, I'd say it's precipitating canines and felines, you know, and like little like Cryptic words, right, so cryptic saying. So I literally wrote in one rap, fazy, the master of the cryptic rhyme, saying and then that became fazy, the cryptic one, and then, when I was putting out my first record, it became my name.
Speaker 3:I got rid of the phasey, I realized how wack that was and it just became the cryptic one and then I eventually dropped the duh. So, yeah, that was the journey to cryptic one. It's, it's, it's the perfect description of how I write my raps. They're never really Fully straightforward, they're cryptic and meaning, you know, so you have to decipher them. So, yeah, that that's who I am and it just felt like the right name and it stuck with me for however many years. I think I officially became cryptic one in 1990. And yeah, incredible, incredible, but that's, that's been a minute.
Speaker 2:Yo, because when you, when I'm listening to your, your, your words, man, your, your art on your album, I can tell like you're, you're, you're set. I can understand. Just because I like listening to lyrics, man, I'm I'm a lyricist, so if you say, is something worth listening to, like I'm picking up on it, I'm trying to decipher what the MC is saying. So you definitely have your own style, which I do definitely appreciate, and just the way you put your words and the right like yo, man, y'all got your listeners, y'all got to go check out. If y'all don't know about cryptic one, y'all got to check it out. Man. So his whole discography I'm a link in the description of the show. I'm telling you he's going to be a new favorite MC and we've got some dope as MCs, people that make music but then also have their, their poetry spoken word in their raps as well, man. So he's definitely, you're definitely one of them. That's amazing. Nobody's ever heard of the story of how you got your name.
Speaker 3:And I don't think anyone's ever really asked me. Man, I think you're the first man.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:Ground.
Speaker 2:Wow, wow, all right. So, all right, I'm on the. I'm on the right path, then, all right, let's keep it moving then. Ok, so let's let's talk. We're going to go back into your history just a little bit and I'm going to start it off with, like, growing up, like who was who was playing music? What types of music were they playing inside of your, your household when you were growing up or when you were, you know, riding around with whoever, where there'd be brother, sisters, aunts, uncles, mom, dad you know what type of music that was influencing you.
Speaker 3:It was my parents mostly. They had a small record collection which I later stole. I still have still have the records they gave to me. My father is an avid music guy, like he's. He collects records as well. I'm not allowed to touch his stash. He still still goes out and buys records and he has the basements full of. He has 45s that I still to this day. You know I'm a grown ass man. I'm scared to touch my father's records still. Wow, I know he has some gems in there, but they always play music around the house.
Speaker 3:It was a wide variety of things. Like you know, I was born in the 70s, so like it was like the Beatles, it was like soundtracks from like, from theater, like the soundtrack for Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar. I'd hear stuff like Three Dog Night. I'd hear Marvin Gaye, it would be all over the place. It wasn't really too much jazz, but it was definitely like a lot of rock and soul and then later disco. But it was my sister who really kind of opened my ear to hip hop, which was later, you know, because hip hop was really just being born.
Speaker 3:I remember one specific day. This is after I moved to Long Island, so I was probably around like six years old. We had a little basketball hoop in the front and I'd always be out there shooting and I just heard something coming from my sister's window and my sister's seven years older than me, so like I'm not allowed to touch her stuff. So I had to like wait until she left and I snuck in her room and I was just going through her record trying to find what she was playing and I came across this record called the groups, called the Disco Three, which later became the Fat Boys, and it was basically like someone beatboxing and some rap and that was the first time I ever heard hip hop and I was like this is my music.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it must have been like seven or eight years old at most. And yes, since then it was just like a quest to find more. I literally would like anytime my mom would go shopping to the mall. I'd like crack open my piggy bank and and go to the mall and go to this place called record town and the owner knew me. He'd give me a crate so I could stand up and reach the records. Like that's how, how young I was and I would just literally there was no rap section at the time because hip hop was not like mainstream yet. So I just flipped through and really just look at the names and pick out anything that sounded like it might be rap and bring it home.
Speaker 3:So that's also how I got my love for digging. So shout out to my family man, it's my parents and my sister.
Speaker 2:Yo, yo shout out to shout to sister, the fat boys man. I just remember growing up looking at I can't remember the name of the movie, but they were in it. They were trying to be like nurses to try and get something.
Speaker 3:Oh there were some sort of leaves.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's it. There's sort of leaves man and I was like, because they started like beep, I'm like, what is that?
Speaker 3:Exactly, exactly the same energy. I was like what is that and why have I never heard it before, and where can I get more of it?
Speaker 2:So, man, yo fat boys is the start. Man Shout out to mom and dad. I hope your dad like lets you touch some of the records eventually.
Speaker 3:Yo, I'm going on Thanksgiving. Maybe this will be the time I actually get the courage to ask him.
Speaker 1:He probably will let me.
Speaker 3:I'll bring my portable turntable and just sneak down there while they're eating food.
Speaker 2:So he has his own like listening then like where he listens to his records and stuff.
Speaker 3:You know, I don't even know if he listens to him anymore. To be honest, like I just think he he's just like I went through it too, like I'm actually I'm going through it. I have a bunch of records I bought that I haven't listened to yet. I think he just likes collecting them. At this point, he listens to a lot of the stuff that he couldn't find digitally. So he's, he's discovered that, and you know, records take, take up a lot of space.
Speaker 3:And but he's still. You know he has a couple turntables he has. So I don't know, I don't know if he actually makes time to listen to him. I got to ask him next Thursday.
Speaker 2:Man, that's going to be a. That's going to be a. That's a dope conversation, like do you, you and your dad like talk about music regularly, or is that something that connects y'all?
Speaker 3:We don't really talk about it much. We used to go digging together. That was kind of like a bond, like in Long Island I'm sure they have other places there but there was a specific record show that we used to go to is like in this kind of big warehouse, and there would just be vendors you know a bunch of vendors, maybe like 30 to 40 vendors selling selling all types of vinyl. And I would just go and my father would know, like, like if I was looking for specific records I'd given the titles and the years and the label and stuff and if he came across it he'd pick it up for me. So that was kind of our bond. But it was never really a bond about the music, because I like different music than he liked.
Speaker 3:I later became a lot more open minded about music. But he was super into do op and I was at the time super into like soul, funk, jazz, that sort of thing, and obviously do op is kind of the beginning of soul. So I really should have a love for it. But I think it was that kind of rebellious, like I don't want to listen to what my parents listen to. Stay in my life, you know.
Speaker 2:Right, right, yeah, even though it still influences you to this day. Like I just remember my mom listening to Patty Lebel and Prince Mary J who else she listened to? Man, she listened to a lot of them right down the street. That's when people were blaring their music in the house and you could hear it outside the house. You know what I'm saying. Like they were listening to Smokey Robinson, the OJs, like yo, everything was just blaring.
Speaker 2:We could hear the music walking up and down the street, man, whether it didn't matter like what demographic they were blasting the music, even going to the corner store, man, they was blasting the music. Man, that's what it was, not, you know, not the coffee shop music that we hear today. You know what I mean. So, but, man, that's amazing and I just want to make sure everybody knows. Like the disco three, man, they were a critical part in hip hop as well, because, as we celebrate 50 years of hip hop, the disco three, originally composed of Mark Prince, mark ED Morales, damon Cool, roxie Wimbley and then Darren Buff, love Robinson we lost one of them, maybe. I think it was maybe 10 years ago, something like that. But yeah, man, they I don't think they get talked enough about enough, kind of like.
Speaker 3:They don't. They kind of get almost ridiculed like even you know, because they were fat boys. Right in the title it's kind of like funny and they joked around a lot. So I don't think people historically look at them as serious rappers. But they were serious man. They had a huge influence on the culture. But, hopefully they get their due.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because they help influence, like Bismarck E and Sure who else? Dougie Fresh, like come on man, like who was doing it before? Dougie Fresh and Bismarck E, and you know it could be a lot of people doing that, but in the mainstream I like it was the fat boys and then it was the fat boys doing movies, like who was doing that before?
Speaker 3:Like Vems and 1DMC, and they all toured together too, so like they were a huge part of it. And yeah, shout out to the fat boys. No one says that enough.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, yo. So yeah, man, shout out to your sister, man Blasting the music. Man, you had to go sneak in there. I've done that a couple of times because I'm like yo, what is it? What are they listening to right now? Find it and be like all right, I'm going to go to the. I'm. I couldn't go to, like, the record stores because I didn't have enough dough, but when I got enough money, I'll go to the bootleggers. They were the second best thing. There you go and then I get the albums. You know what I'm saying? So, man, either, any way, you could get it. Man, I was, we was going to get them albums, the CDs or the cassettes, whatever it was man. So, man, I got to ask you about when you started making, when you started rapping, man, when you started MCing, what sparked you to even want to start telling stories, which arounds me.
Speaker 3:Um, I know the point where I started taking it more seriously, like I had always. Like. Since I heard rap, I was like, oh, I think one of the things that drew me to it was that it was accessible. Like all I needed was my imagination and a pencil and a piece of paper and I could. I could do this music. I don't have to, like, learn guitar or learn to sing, you know. Um, so I think early on I started writing, but I took it seriously.
Speaker 3:Once I heard Big Daddy King Like that was I was like, okay, this is on some other level of shit and, I won't lie, I bit his style.
Speaker 3:I would copy his, his entire verses down in my book and then, just like, change the words to like I put my name in where he had his name and change some metaphors and similes around, and that would just be kind of that was my way of learning was to blatantly steal someone's style, which you know, I think. I think that's a valuable lesson for for people. I think it kind of gets lost today because people, um, they go from like here's my first beat and automatically it's on Instagram and they're already sharing it. So, like, um, it was a big part of my development in every aspect was to like see something that I liked, blatantly, steal it and copy it until I got good enough to do my own thing. But, um, had I released any of those early things, people probably would have made fun of me for being a fake big daddy cane and not not you know. So it was instrumental in my learning, but I think it's that's one thing that's kind of lost in the culture of like sharing everything, um, immediately.
Speaker 2:Hmm, speaking speaking of development, man, because even in, you know, music production, beat making, music production, composing, um, there's a development period that happens, um, which I'm still going through. I only been doing it for six years, maybe seven years, but it's, it's just learning different styles, different techniques. What would you say, like the would be the best way, um, for either MCs or beat makers to properly develop themselves, to be the best they can be before you know they, they put out music. You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 3:Like um, I'd say it's the same. It's like anything man. Like the best way to to get good at things is to do them Right. Like I had this conversation with someone yesterday, like I had when I first switched over to Ableton. I had the push and I didn't make a beat on it for like seven months. It's just sitting here. I'm like, damn, did I waste my money? Like what am I doing? And all I was doing during those seven months was watching YouTube tutorials and reading the manual, and but that didn't really help me learn anything. What helped me learning was turning it on and making some really wack beats for a while and then getting good at it.
Speaker 3:So I think I think the key to developing is is just to to just to make music make bad music or, you know, like I think that's one of the things that people get caught up in. I still get caught up in it, and you said that you're still developing. Six years in, I'm 30 something years in and I'm still developing. The stuff I make today is different than the stuff I made last year and year before. That just because I am always trying to either like I hate using the word, but I'm trying to be better than the last version of myself, and the reason why I hate using the word better is because it's all subjective, right? So you know it's. It's the.
Speaker 3:The big key that I would say in developing is try and be kind to yourself, your current self and your past self, so that your future self can develop, which is hard, because sometimes I listen to stuff I made 10 years ago. I'm like, oh man, what was that snare Too loud, what was I thinking, man, or you know? And it's hard to turn that brain off. But at the same time I got to be kind to myself and be like oh, there were some good ideas there. I didn't have the skills yet to develop them, and now I do. So now I won't make that mistake, but I'll make other mistakes, and I don't know who gets credit to the for the quote, but I use it a lot. I say it's important to fail forward. So just realize you're going to make mistakes, you're going to make errors. Not every beat is going to be your best beat, but that's what you have to do. You have to keep making stuff until you hit the gems.
Speaker 2:Yo, you giving them crazy gems right now. Man, be kind to yourself, man, listen. Man, we here with Cryptic One. Man, listen, you're giving your jewels. I hope you're picking them up. Everybody, internets, make sure you're all listening, man. Yeah, man, that's one of the things I had to learn too. Is, you know, beat like I didn't know about certain things when I was just first starting. And I did the same thing, man, when I bought my, my groove box, my machine MK3, it sat there for eight, nine months and I was just on YouTube just watching stuff and I wasn't really like it was in there but it wasn't really sinking in until I actually applied it and really just did everything hit the buttons, turned the knobs, mess with the, you know the doll and you know all that type of stuff. And then, okay, let me put something out. And then I listened to it in my headphones. It sounded a certain way. But then when I take it, burn a CD, take it to the car, I'm like oh oh, okay, I got to adjust this, adjust that.
Speaker 2:You know trial and error. So, like you said, fail forward, man, that's all. That's all.
Speaker 3:This life is man, it's just yeah, exactly, and it it applies to everything. It's not like it's weird how we expect to be good at it right away, you know, just by reading a book or watching a video. It's not like, let's go to basketball, I'm going to read a book on basketball and then jump on the court and crush everybody. Like you got to be out there and you got to. You're going to suck for a few years before you get good man it's, and sucking is a bad word. Like you know, you got to learn and the best way to learn is just jump in headfirst.
Speaker 3:And 30 years, I'm still learning that because I've had to push three for like five months and I hadn't been making anything on it, I just been performing with it and like for the past two weeks I was like, all right, I'm just going to make a beat every day with no intention. I'm not releasing them because I don't think they're any good, but now I'm starting to learn the machine. You know so it's. I'm constantly learning and relearning the same exact lessons over and over throughout my life, right, right.
Speaker 2:That's all. It is this. What did I say when my mom said? She said, uh, this life is like a training, it's like a playground man. So you know, you can learn, learn different things. You can learn anything you want to learn. Man, do anything you want to do. It's just you got to put the time and effort. You know what I mean. The failure which, for somebody like my, I don't like the word, I don't like failing at anything. But you know, after you know spending a lot of time just like trying to be a perfectionist in quotes. I wasted a lot of freaking time and I wasted a lot of time trying to just be perfect, seem perfect. You know like, come on man. Nobody, nobody fucking cares. You know like, come on, man.
Speaker 3:Exactly, we put too much pressure on ourselves, man. But it's what it is Pressure. The pressure, I don't know it's. It's double edged sword. I like to put the pressure on myself because it makes me want to get better, but then I know the pressure is stress Right, stress themselves out.
Speaker 2:Hmm, man, I got to ask this man. You have been so many, so many years doing this man and dedicated time and energy doing this. What, what would you recommend besides the one that you recommended before the documentary that you scored? What resources would you recommend for the listeners that's on their journey with either you know creating beats or creating rhymes? What resources would you recommend they either read, listen to or watch?
Speaker 3:Um, I'm going to add one. You said Listen to or watch. I'm going to add one is join, like become, become a part of a community. For me and for beat makers, sidechain society has been kind of life changing. You know it's a producer community where there's a few hundred, I think, members not everyone's like super active. I haven't even been active lately, but I learn so much every time I jump into the discord or jump into one of the zooms. Zooms happen every Thursday. Um, there's so many talented people in there, from people who are nominated to nominate for Grammys to like people who just started making beats that year, and everyone's kind of on a level playing field and there's so much knowledge and information and everyone looks out for each other and tries to help each other and it's become kind of More than a beat making community like its family at this point. But I would say, even if you're not going to join sidechain, like, find a community that that you can vibe off of. And it's easy to find that because the internet makes it easy, so I don't care if you're in the middle of nowhere, you can find a community of like minded people and bounce ideas off each other Like. It doesn't have to be like a Like an official thing. It could just be like you know, you win like five of your beat maker friends, like, yeah, every Thursday let's get together and play beats for each other on Zoom or some shit like that you know. So that, that, I think, is an important Aspect of this all.
Speaker 3:As far as like Actual resources, yeah, I don't know. Man, like I would say, there's a lot of podcasts. Super Duty Tough Work that you mentioned is a great one for anyone who's going to try and be an independent musician. They drop a lot of gems in blueprint has been doing this as long as I have. So he, he knows what he's talking about. He did music for a career like three or four times longer than I did. So Dude has all the knowledge and he shares all the knowledge with everyone for free on the podcast. So I would check that out. Yeah, I mean, that's all I got right now. I'll interrupt you later when another one pops in my head.
Speaker 2:I got you, I got you any time, you know, just like just go ahead and blurt it out, man. So you were said you were learning and I've seen you performing lives with Ableton. How has I don't I don't know what type of other machines that you've used, but how has Ableton like kind of shaped the way you create your, your, your music?
Speaker 3:It was a big game changer for me when I finally decided to learn Ableton. I've used a million different machines. I still have a bunch of them. I've used a lot of different software Excuse me. I was on Logic for about 10 years and then, when I got the push to, mainly because I just wanted to start learning finger drumming and I just like the way the pads feel on the push. So I was like, ok, now I got to learn Ableton and, to be honest, I hated it. I hated it when I first got it and not the push. The hardware was great, but I did not like Ableton. I didn't like the way it was set up. It didn't make any sense to me to be 100 percent honest. But then, once I sat there and made beats on it every day and forced myself to learn it, I saw the beauty of it and for me Ableton it's the one piece of software that I'd say kind of morphs itself to whatever workflow works for you, whereas most other things you have to kind of adapt to their workflow.
Speaker 3:Because I know, you know, we all know a million people that use Ableton and I don't think I've ever seen two people use it in my life. I don't think I've ever seen a person use it in my life. I don't think I've ever seen two people use it exactly the same way. And that, to me, is what really like connected me to it, because I do a little weird things that I've never seen other producers do. And it's not like a brag, it's just kind of, you know, come from a different era. I just do things differently. The way I chop samples is differently than most, and Ableton lets me do it that way, whereas, like you know, not to an SP 404, but I have one, I have the Mark two. I love the machine, I love what people do with it, but I can't chop the way I like to chop on it.
Speaker 3:So I don't even remember the question you asked, but it was about Ableton. So, like that just seemed when I started performing. It seemed like that was the right way to go for me to perform on Ableton Because I had the push. I had the laptop, all my beats were on there, like let me figure this out. And then somewhere through that I was like you know I really was. I was going to a lot of shows, obviously. I was performing, like I don't know, like three or four times a month. It's at a point and you know, everyone has SPs. And then I started to get that envy Like damn, I need an SP. And then the mark you need one now, yep.
Speaker 3:I was like that's the piece I need. And then the mark two came out and I got it and I kind of learned how to use it for performing, but I never really got comfortable with it. And then, um, then the push three came out and I was like, all right, well, I happen to have the money, Let me get it, and that's what I'm going to perform on and that's what I've been using since and unfortunately my SP has been kind of sitting here collecting dust so I may sell it soon. We're going to sell it or really learn how to use it. I haven't figured out which Don't sell it, that's what other people?
Speaker 3:say that's what a lot of people have told me, except the people who want one and they're like, yeah, sell it how much.
Speaker 2:Yeah man, you know, these machines is like man, it's so many different ways to create music. Man, um, cause I was at um, uh, just, uh, just this past Wednesday. I was at, uh, today's future sound at a beat battle. Um, that, uh, philip Drummond was, dr Egon was putting on um at Texas State University and I seen him. And I seen another doc, um, just creating music. And I'm looking at your, I'm looking at him. It's so many pads, you know what I mean. It's so many knobs. I'm like man, like how are y'all remember? It's color coded? Like, how are y'all remembering what the press and everything like that? So, man, it throws me for a loop, but I, I mean I'm pretty sure I could sit down and you know game from you. Or you know the thousands of other beat makers that use Ableton, cause they say Ableton is a game changer when you're trying to create chop the warping and you know, all that type of different things.
Speaker 3:So um, it's a game changer. It's hard to go back for me, it's hard to go back to something else. It's like, um, a little more streamlined, a little, uh, less complicated it. You know, like when I go to, I have a lot of hardware, like I have a Kias and I 50, I have a SR 10, um, you know, I have the SP, few other little things here and there. It's hard for me to go back because I'll start making a beat on it and I'm like, ah man, if I could just time stretch that one little piece of the sample, it'd be perfect. And then I wind up dumping it into Ableton. And then now I'm back in Ableton and I keep coming back to it because I don't know.
Speaker 3:I guess I'm a bit of a control freak, Like I know exactly what I want and I can do everything I want in Ableton. I can't do everything I want in the other pieces. Um, but there's something to be said about those limitations. Um, like, working around the limitations of machines is definitely, um, a skill I need to to relearn. Um, I see a lot of people do a lot of amazing things with with minimal equipment and you know like it's possible. You know right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, man, definitely, definitely possible. It's, I think, um, and just watching documentaries and reading different books and stuff like that is, it's the limitations that they had back in the day like shaped the sound that we still appreciate to this day. So limitations are not a bad thing, and so you know like if they would have had like limitless time to sample who knows what we could have, what we could have had, you know so, but they only had what?
Speaker 2:10, 15 seconds of sample time sometimes, and then they had to chop that up, slow it, speed it up, slow it down, like it's yo man, it's all, um, it's all. How you use it basically is what it comes down to.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, that's the era I came up in, so I I missed those limitations. But then you know, the unlimited sampling time has spoiled me Right.
Speaker 2:So right. So I mean, do you and this is just a random question but do you put any limitations on yourself when you're creating? Um meaning like any time constraints, or you know any instruments you can use, or anything like that?
Speaker 3:I do sometimes. Um, like, the biggest limitation I put on myself was time. Like I've done a few things kind of on Instagram where I was doing that. It was one thing I was doing called Saturday sketches, where every Saturday I'd wake up, I set a timer. I think it was I want to say it was 30 minutes. I just set a 30 minute timer and whatever I had finished is what I uploaded that day. Um, and that really got, I don't know, got my creativity going and got my um, you know, my speed up.
Speaker 3:Like I, I trusted myself more, I think, um, just because I didn't have time to second guess. You know, the first snare that I liked, that's the one I picked. I wasn't going through like 400 snares because that takes 10 minutes of my 30 minutes, right. So you know, it's like you learn to like kind of just go with um your instincts and gut feeling as opposed to thinking about things too much. So that was super um helpful lesson and I really want to get back to doing that. Plus it's. You know, we're all adults at this point. So, like time is is very valuable. So if I could cut down the time that it takes me to do something like mine I do. These aren't like fully sequenced out long songs, you know with mad changeups, but you know 30 minutes knock out a good idea that I could flesh out later that that was the shit for me.
Speaker 2:Man, yeah, I, um, I saw that. Uh, I think I saw that. When did you? When did I see that man? That might've been a few years ago when I saw, um, you doing it. I saw a floor bomber start doing it, I saw Jay Filt start doing it, um, and I was like you know what, let me time myself, man. And then you're right, it does speed up your decision making, cause you don't have time to just you don't have time to mess around and just like maybe I can try this. I mean, no, this is what you have. All right, you got the sample shot, the sample. You got the drums. All right, pick your drums, make the drums, shape the drums. Okay, put you know, put it together a little bit. All right, 10 minutes is up. All right, on to the next one type of thing.
Speaker 3:So, you can always go back in and change it. But, like I think, getting out a lot of ideas quickly and stacking them, I think it's a it's a great process, Works for me.
Speaker 2:Right man, um man, and speak speaking of process man, I always cause I'm about to start talking about your music, um, in a second. But I just wanted to ask this like what, what do you do when you first sit down in front of your you know your beat machines or your keyboards? Like what is the very first thing you do or think about as you're about to embark on the creation journey?
Speaker 3:Um, it's changed so much over the years and now it's kind of like a hodgepodge of things that used to be drums, cause drums is kind of like the thing I take the most like pride in or the thing I put the most effort into. So it used to be drums, but, um, now it's kind of whatever. Whatever hits me, like I'll just a lot of times it's just listening to records, like I try and like throw on a record. You know I have a lot of vinyl, um, so I'll just throw on a record and let it play while I'm like cleaning the studio and, like you know, you're a beat maker. So you know, sometimes you'll hear those like three seconds of magic and like this whack ass song, oh, there it is, and then I have to stop sample that and that gets me going. And next thing, you know I'm adding drums and picking a bass sound, playing keys on it or whatever. Um, but it could start that way. It could also just start from, you know, like having a Rhodes VST up and like playing a chord and starting there, or it could start any way.
Speaker 3:I I used to really be, um, the kind of person who was like don't force it, just wait until it happens. And now you know, again, back to being an adult. You don't have that luxury, um, because of the time. So, like, if I'm going to sit down and make beats, I'm going to make sure I make a beat. You know, like that, that's, that's the end goal is like, cause I used to, you know, I'll start working on something like, ah, these drums aren't working, let me throw it out. And then, like, the next day I'll come and do the same thing.
Speaker 3:But now I'm like, if I sit down here, I'm making a beat Like it's a, it's enough of a sketch for, like a rapper, to want to wrap over or whatever. It may not be like fully fleshed out, but I make something that that is, that I can call a beat and then move on. And then like, like what I've been doing now cause, like I said, the past few weeks I've been making beats every day again Um is, I'll wait till I have, you know, like 30 or 40, and then I'll go back and listen to them. And you know, hopefully there's one or two that I'm like, okay, I have something there and then then work on it further. Um, yeah, I hope that answers your question. I don't know, I feel like I kind of dodged it, but I got you.
Speaker 2:I understand, like it's a process, man, um, cause everybody starts. There's some some, you know, you know, clean up the studio while they listen to it, like you just said, listen to the, listen to the record, and then they hear something, boom, okay, now I can start. You know, sample, chop, you know all that type of stuff. Some people, um, sage, some people smoke, some people, you know, drink or you know, just shroom, like whatever it is, whatever it is that gets the creative juices flowing, like that's what they do, man. So, um, I just figured I had to, I had to ask that.
Speaker 2:Now I thought I'm thinking, like people, everybody don't start the same way, so it's just different ways of looking at the uh, creation, music, creation of music process, so, um, but, man, I got to talk to you about your music, man, which I enjoy, and I think, uh, the listeners first time listeners, um, if they've never heard of you, they'll go back and you discography and start from the very beginning. Um, am I saying this right? Parada, yeah, parada, yeah, parada. Man, so um, parada had a limited edition cassette. I can't believe I missed that because I'm a cassette collector, damn Um yeah, I couldn't believe I quit that soul man.
Speaker 3:The cassette was the first thing to go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man. So um Parada man, like what, what that album? Um, what was the meaning of that album? Let's talk about that.
Speaker 3:Um, it's kind of how could I explain it Like Parada is. It's kind of Jess. Uh, Jess is a the producer who produced it long time friend. Part of Adam's family was chilling with him last night talking about the next Parada record.
Speaker 2:Um, look at that, oh well, we got another one coming. What it's it's.
Speaker 3:Well, he's got what we're what we're going to do. Actually, I don't know if I should talk about it fully, but, um, there's going to be multiple Parada records with different rappers on it, um, and Jess is producing all of them, um, but yeah, I won't get into details of that, but what it is for me. I think everyone who's doing a Parada record has a different kind of take on it, but for me, like you know, parada is is Spanish for pirate. So I looked at it like in the ways that we were part pirates that we would steal, like these snippets of sound from older records, um, and, you know, use them for our own wealth, so to speak. So we were pirates in that manner.
Speaker 3:It's also kind of just like my take on on living and growing up in New York, just kind of it's a big metaphor for, like, you had to kind of be a pirate to survive here. You know it was. It's really like a one endless metaphor that has multiple meanings. Yeah, the records all over the place. It's some of it's about activism, some of it's about, you know, seeing witnessing hood shit. Some of it's about digging for samples. Yeah, I hope that explains it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, cuz I wanted to ask you about Um Ostrich syndrome. Hmm, what is Ostrich syndrome?
Speaker 3:Yeah, um, it's, you know, an ostrich Went to avoid a predator. It literally hides its head in the sand, sand, right, yeah, so like it was just kind of like. It's a song about People lying to themselves to protect themselves from danger, and it's not really a judgment, it's just kind of like how we all kind of do it to some, to some degree, and Sometimes it can be good for you to lie to yourself to avoid the danger, and other times it can be worse than the actual danger.
Speaker 3:That's that's kind of what that song is about. Shout out to you for asking that.
Speaker 2:No one's ever asked me about that song like, like, I like, I said I'll be listening to the music, man, and then I listen to the lyrics, man. So I was, you know, I understand that. But somebody that may not be Up on your discography will be like whoa, whoa, like I should, syndrome, and then it's gonna get them thinking Let me go listen to this song, man. And then they start, you know, just noticing things that you know people do and sometimes it's out of survival. When you, when they had that astro syndrome, you know it's like out of survival. Or or if they do act like you do, like who's an activist, you actually do something and everybody's not going to be able to Do the same thing.
Speaker 2:Some people's revolution is Music, some people's revolution is, you know, march, and some people is political, some people is cooking, some people's, you know, I mean, like everybody's revolution is different. So yeah, I just figured I asked about that. That's, this is a dope album. Everybody. So Cryptic ones at discography again is gonna be linked in the description of the show man. So go ahead, click the link, man, and just take a ride, man, take a journey, and if you know, if you feel it, support it. Man, cuz the way I see it, and everybody who knows and who's ever heard the rekt show podcast, y'all know if, if it's recommended and you click it, man, it's an investment. Man, buy it because it's an investment for the artist to keep making more Music, more art. You know, I'm saying so. Yeah, yeah, man. Um, and you are entrepreneur, I gotta, I gotta, say that too, man. So you know, you had a pirata hot sauce, the t-shirt with the bundle man, like, yeah, like man. I've never seen anybody have their own album related hot sauce before. Like, where did that come from?
Speaker 3:I love to cook, I make hot sauces, and when people come to the crib, like sometimes we just have people over, you know, friends, and I cook. I love to cook. As to me, as shit is like making beats, and you know I'll give him a hot sauce. They're like yo, what is this hot sauce? And I like yo, you should sell this. And I'm like hmm, hmm, that was the idea for that. But also, like I try With every release to have some sort of unique merchandise, just to kind of like set it apart.
Speaker 3:The people who support me, they kind of I don't know if they expect it, but they definitely support it. And you know, just kind of my way of like being creative in another, in another way, and tie it into the music, like for the next physical release. Like we haven't talked about my album new beginnings, which, um, that's, that's the beats, so it's like 37 instrumentals. It's been out on Spotify for a couple years or all streaming, but, um, I have the vinyl now, the cassette and CDs. I have them like literally here. I have to like get all the marketing stuff. But the unique thing that I did with that is I made my own incense, because I burn incense at the house and I was like wonder how hard it is to make my own incense. And I researched it. I'm like I should, I could do that at the crib and um, so yeah, this is gonna be incense sticks with the next album.
Speaker 2:So Scientists, marketing genius.
Speaker 3:That's it, man man, I just like I like to learn new things. Man, that's really what it is. And we have so much access to information Now that when I was growing up I didn't have I, there was no. Youtube didn't exist yet. So, like fact that Anything I want to learn how to do, I could type it on a computer and suddenly have like a hundred videos showing me how I can do it. I'm like, okay, let's learn to do shit.
Speaker 2:Right, right, man, and as I, as you're talking about new beginnings as well, which I think I remember the story of you telling me about the album cover where you took, I think you had a camera, but then it was some type of device that you had to, where it made it look like it's like a 360 degree view or something like that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's a 360 camera which I've been using those for about like maybe nine or ten years now, but they get a more popular, the technologies getting better. But it was just one day. It snowed a lot and I'm in Brooklyn. I'm lucky enough. I don't know if you can hear my dog barking she's going.
Speaker 2:No, it's alright, it's alright, it's alright.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah she's, she's a good protector of the equipment. But, yeah, so it snowed a lot, snowed like a little over a foot and I went in the backyard. I'm like, damn, I got to take a picture of this. And I was like I'm just gonna get my 360 camera and I took the shot. I took one shot usually I take, like you know, 1015 to try and get the right one but I wasn't even intending it for the album cover. But the second, I uploaded it to the computer and looked at it, I was like, oh, this is the album cover, right, right, this is it. I don't even know what the next album is gonna be, but this is gonna be the cover.
Speaker 3:It kind of worked out because the whole concept of new beginnings was I started, it was on January 1st and I decided every Friday that year I was gonna release an Instrumental song. Like I didn't want to call it a beat because, like most of these beats have like Progressions and change ups and like I consider them songs. So I Was like every Friday I'm gonna do it and at the end of the year I'm gonna collect them together and call out an album. And I didn't do it every Friday. I missed some Fridays because life gets in the way, but I did.
Speaker 3:I think I did 39 or 40 and then I could only fit so much on the vinyl, so I had to narrow it down to 37 of them. But yeah, that was the whole whole story behind that in the picture. Shout out to 360 Cameras. If you don't, if you're not familiar and you want some, like, interesting, cool, unique content. They're getting a little more popular now, but I would look into one and, matter of fact, hit me up on Instagram because I have a couple and I'm probably gonna be selling them soon.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, you know, I was looking at the car. I'm like how's you even capture, catcher all? And then, and then I just remember you saying about the 360 camera. I'm like, wow, it really it's just yo, the, and look like you're looking up, it looks like you're looking up, but then everything is surround like it's like a high-fresh ball or eyeball type of view. But man, it's um, that's a dope cover, man. And then I've been seeing you recently and talking about the, the physicals coming out. So physicals are already ready to go, ready to ship.
Speaker 3:They're ready. I've just been, to be a hundred percent honest, I've just been kind of lazy getting all the marketing stuff. This is that, that business art balance that I was talking about. Like I was stressed out because I like build a website for it and all this other stuff and I do 90% of the stuff I do myself. So I was stressing out about all the business stuff and I was like, okay, I need to take a step back. So for the last Three months they've been sitting here, but it's time to get them out in the world. I spent the money on them. It's time to. It's time to Make some money back, hopefully, because you definitely don't sell records that are just sitting on a shelf With no no way for anyone to get them. I've sold a couple of shows, so shout out to everyone that comes out to the shows. Man, that's been my life blood for the, the whole year pretty much Performing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, performing and and congratulations. I know you have a lot of like milestones on your music too, but, um, fysm just turned 10 years old. Yep, yeah, 10 years old this year, man. So congratulations on that. Like, how do you feel about you know, when you have an anniversary of Something that you created and you put out to the world? Is, you know, five years, ten years, 15, 20 years later, you know if people still rocking with it?
Speaker 3:Yeah, that that's the thing that really like that touches me is that people still fuck with it, or or people just now discovering it and they like it. Yeah, man, sometimes we we get hard on ourselves and like, ah, man, I could do things better, why isn't this working out? And then you get a DM from someone that's like yo man, congrats on FYSM. Man, I gotta tell you that this one song or this one line really spoke to me like that. That's what, that's everything to me, man, that that's Keeps the battery in my back charged. Yeah, shout out to anyone who's ever, ever gotten anything from my music, man, y'all, y'all, everything.
Speaker 2:That's what it's about. Man, just I'm they. I can't remember who just talked about this, but they said um, you know, if you're making music, don't make it To be like self-serving. Make it so other people can take something from it and you know whether it's inspiring or just helping them get through their day or Whatever. But at the same time, you get that release of creating and then you know expressing yourself. Expressing yourself, yeah, but it shouldn't be self-serving.
Speaker 3:No, I mean it was major. It is that it is a great gem. It's kind of cool that it's really like a cycle, you know, like I sit here and I make the music, then I give it to someone else, they listen to it and then they tell me that they got something from it and that gives me something to make more, and then just keep that that energy flowing, you know.
Speaker 2:Man, man, um, one of my, one of my favorite albums that you have created, the anti-mobia strip theory, man, um, and we'll talk about it real quick as I know time but, man, I just thought that was a very, very introspective album, if I can say that. Um, for sure, there's a, there's a lot happening in this album. Man, can you go into like, what, what, what made you create this album? And you know, just write the way you were writing on this album, because you have guest appearances as well too. So, yeah, um, for that album, asap rock. You got on there, man, like, come on. Man.
Speaker 3:That's. That's the homie man. Yeah, that album. It was my first solo album so I really wanted to put a lot into it.
Speaker 3:And the one big Thing for me with that album, it was the first time I ever wrote anything that was personal, like life shit you should. You know, used to just be rapping a rap, like bragging, or do creative things with the bragging or tell stories or like that, but like actually getting into like my real life and my issues and Problems and depression and put that in the song. It wasn't really done Much back then and I definitely had never done it. So that's what I went into the album Thinking like I'ma pour my soul into this. You know there's some rapping and bragging on it too, but, um, I think the heart and soul of that record is really just me being honest, um, with Myself, really not even I never wrote it like with the intention of it's kind of weird that this is coming up after. You said that we should. We both agree that you shouldn't be self-serving, but this was totally self-serving.
Speaker 3:It was kind of like my way to get out the stuff that I didn't feel comfortable talking to people about, and I think I coded a lot of it, um, you know, with my crypticness, um, where I kind of felt safer talking about it in that form than like Walking up to a person and be like yo. I've been depressed for the last year about this, you know. So, um, that's kind of the story behind behind that album. I don't know if I've done an album like that since. Um, I've had songs here and there that were personal, but, like as a whole, there's there's a lot of of um, deep, uh for lack of a better word deep, uh, traumatic things that have happened in my life, kind of contained in in the lyrics on that one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you definitely. Uh, anybody that goes to listen to it, you know, as we're talking about, you can research it and, um, listen to it on your own time. But, yeah, man, I, um, I definitely felt, I felt the like, the real life. You know lessons and you know everything that was going on throughout that, throughout this album, man, so that's why it's one of my favorites, just because you know, we, all, we, everybody's going through something. There's nobody on this earth that's not going through something. Um, but you know, it takes a certain type of individual to say you know what I'm a, I'm gonna write this down, write what I'm going through, you know, create the, you know the, the music for it, and then put it out so A wider audience can hear it instead of just yourself. You know what I'm saying. Like, that's um, and and again, that's not to me, that's not self-serving, because if you didn't do that, who knows if we'll be talking to you right now? Yeah, you know so.
Speaker 2:So I appreciate you for doing that because now I get to talk to you about it, you know me, and then everybody else can listen to it and you know, take something, take something from it and help their life and, you know, just get their their life better. You know, um Um, yeah, yeah, we'll go on for the next one, but that's question Um. But yeah, I just enjoy that. I enjoyed that album when I listened to it, man. So, oh, thank you. But man um, your Showcases, man um, you do a lot of shows, um, recently you did, I think was donut lounge.
Speaker 3:No, I didn't do. Don't I'm doing donut lounge this come in Saturday, I did. They have this other thing where you go to their studio and do like a performance in front of a green screen, which was super fun. Shout out to donut lounge, man, they're great. If you ever come out this way, you definitely should check check out donut lounge.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, donut lounges, yeah, I've been tapped it in for the last few years and I think they do it, like, once a month in our arcade, and you know it's just a fun atmosphere. That's what this is about, man, just you know, having fun, peace, love, unity, having fun, you know. So Donut lounge has the right idea. Keep it going, man. Um, because they also host world emcee, which is, you know, getting the emcees out there to spit their lures. They do it on top of rooftops. Yeah, like yo man, they really have come a long way for where they first started. So the your showcases, man, when you go into a beat, showcase what, what goes through your mind as you're, like, either picking beats or, you know, practicing, and like what, like what goes through your brain as you're going through that whole process to get ready for a beat show.
Speaker 3:For me it's. I picked what I call Bangers. Like when I make beats I dump them into iTunes and I listen to them and then I kind of rate them. I'll give like it's just for my own personal opinion and sometimes the ratings changes as time goes on. But like, these are my five star beats, these are my four star beats, these are the the trash ones will call those one star beats and, um, I Try and pick at least 50% that are my quote-unquote it's a weird word to use because I don't really have any hit records, but these are my hits. You know, like you're probably gonna see those.
Speaker 3:It most shows I do and then I just kind of experiment and like Swapping different beats that I haven't played out before or what have you. That's my general process. Lately I've just been playing like 80. 90% of the set is Stuff from new beginnings because I know I'm about to release the physical, so I want people to get to familiar with those songs. But yeah, it varies.
Speaker 3:I did Make a promise to myself. I don't know if I'm gonna keep it because I'm kind of it's kind of intimidating, but I told myself that next year when I start doing shows, 50% of them are gonna be beats that I've never Played out before, like brand new beats that I made Currently, because I see people like Shout out to designer dreams. I see him at shows and I I have literally seen that dude sitting at the show before his set in a corner with headphones on and his SP making the beats that he's gonna play that night. He's like, yeah, man, I just made five beats, I'm about to play him. Like wait, what you just made beats and you about to play him in your set. That's wild to me. Yeah, man, he's a different, he's a different kind of animal with that.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm. Yeah, man shout designer dreams man. He's also been a guest previously, man, so, man, season three is yo man, crazy, crazy. It's amazing how all y'all Tapping with each other because designer dreams is in the same area, nothing new was in the same area who else Jay?
Speaker 3:Hershey, saw him last night yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm saying like all of y'all are like Literally like that's y'all's group, and then I, I can't wait. For I can't remember what it's called, but I just remember nothing new. Like it's in front of a, like a brownstone, and you know it's like a street party, a block party or something.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that happens, and in bed style, I believe.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So you know I'll just be why I'm in Texas, man. So when I'm seeing everything on Socials and stuff like that, man, that's cool, tell me, like Yo, block parties and all y'all connected and stuff like that, which is super dope. As far as merch goes and these are my last few questions, but as far as merch goes, man like, and you design all of this too, so wow, you got a crazy amount of hats that you have. But when that, when you did, when you're designing a merch, it's intentional to go with the music, right? So Like, how do you, how do you even think about, or is it just you just trying different things and then figure out what sticks?
Speaker 3:It's. It's a little bit of everything. Sometimes I'll just have an idea and I run with it. To be a hundred percent Honest, like the last few I haven't designed like I took the pictures and what have you. But I have a designer who's amazing, who I work with, shout out to ill poetic, so he's done it. But it's kind of a we do a back and forth, like I kind of give him a concept and then he comes at me with something and then we go back and forth.
Speaker 3:I used to design everything like honestly, like that's one of those business Things that I found super stressful because I didn't feel like I Don't want to say I didn't have the skill, but I didn't have the, the, the skill level of to Make exactly what was in my head hit hit design things. So like I wound up starting to hire someone because I feel like they could get what's out of my head better than I can. But um, yeah, man, I try and tie everything together. In a marketing Community that I'm part of, they kind of stress, like for branding, to kind of have a campaign. So like when I release a record, it's not like okay, here's just the album cover and that's it. Like here's album cover, here's stickers coast or whatever, and they all aren't the exact same design but they clearly all belong together like you know. It's like you know, say, any Product you see a coke can. You don't even need to see the word on it, you just see the red and the white stripe go through. You're like, yep, that's coke. So like I try and have that kind of a recognition with with everything on a full release.
Speaker 3:And then I think I don't think enough people put importance on logos because I feel like that's a it's a very instant way to just be recognized as to, like you know, once you get a logo, man put that shit on everything. Like I'm a little guilty of not doing that because I honestly I don't have a logo for cryptic one that I like. Yet I have the Adams family logo which I designed, which has become kind of like A staple. Like every year or two I do t-shirts and they always sell out. So it's kind of a testament to like the staying power of a logo. I made that logo 20 something years ago and I think people when that know who Adams family is, when they see it it just kind of Instantly like, oh, this is them, so I put that on every single release. I have to tie them all together. Yeah, I hope that that answer your question somewhat.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that does that does like I'm, I'm, I'm just going through and looking over, like all your, your merch that you have on your website and On Bandcamp as well. Like I'm looking at Truth, the truth album, which is I think it was the second sophomore album for you, which is another crazy album. It's like you know just the way that you designed that is like what was the whole truth? Have truths and lies, yeah, like.
Speaker 3:Yo man like thank you man, that one, I that one, I take full credit, credit Credit man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man like, Sheesh boy, like you get like Soon as you look at the cover, you like all right, this is what I'm in for me, like, I Like. I just enjoy how you do that with your album covers, which is the album cover speaks first. It's kind of like books, right. So you look at the book, you like, damn okay, is this something I might want to pick up? And you pick it up, oh, oh, okay, this is well, okay, now I'm gonna open it. You know me the same thing for music, so I feel like you take that same approach. Yeah, I think. I think what seems like a lot of people are.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think I think what seeped into me is because the first however many years of me digging for records, it was all about the album covers, like that's how I look at the year and like, okay, 72, I kind of like that era, and then whatever album cover was the coolest looking, that's how I bought, you know, my first I don't know few thousand records, so I guess that's why it leaked into being kind of an important aspect for me. Yeah, man influenced man.
Speaker 2:So, um, another thing I noticed is about your, your videos, which there's a quite a few people that directed. But what was it? 1221, 12 Intricate schemes or what else? Adams, or is it origami, orgami, those, those are so cool.
Speaker 2:Man those, those are so man, they like, yeah, man, it's like they speak, like whoever directed them did an amazing job. But yo, like these are the videos that I'm like Wow, like after you watch them, like you can't forget it To get what was said. You know saying either so it really is speaking to the person I mean, especially if they're open to it Like, do you, do you go again, do you do like storyboards and like, oh, this is how I want the videos to go, or you just give creative control to somebody, or is it you? You know doing everything.
Speaker 3:With those it was I gave creative control. Like 1221, 12, that was Eric and nello, so was origami. He is, he's just a genius. Like he's Super young while he's probably not super young anymore, but when, when he did those videos he was maybe early 20s, he's just really. He's got an eye that like I don't understand. I wish I understood how we did have the stuff he did.
Speaker 3:I was there for shooting some of it and I was like what is he doing? Man? This is I don't understand this shot. And and then I saw the final product. I was like, oh okay, I will never not trust you again. Like, yeah, he's, he's something else. He did one of the Davey Jones locker for pirata.
Speaker 3:He did that video as well. Yeah, he's, he's just a person like literally others give him the song and then His mind just goes to work. It doesn't Like I've done videos to like full music videos that I haven't released, and the reason I haven't released them is because I don't feel like they're. They look cool but they're not creative enough. In a way, he gets so creative, like my stuff is. My videos are kind of on the nose, like If the lyrics say he was walking down a dark alley. That's exactly what you're gonna see. You're gonna see a dark alley and he's gonna be walking down, you know. So it's just kind of like I tend to follow the narrative exactly where he gets super creative with Everything, like the shots and story everything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, shout out to Eric, man man, shout out to Eric man, he's doing this thing like I really enjoy those videos and I'm a, I'm a link a couple of these in the description as well, so people can See what we're talking about, man, because you gotta see it firsthand and then that's gonna make you go into the album. Listen to that, you know me. So it's just a rather whole you're gonna go down, so Be prepared, into nets. But Okay, last few questions. Like the man, no genres, off limits. I haven't asked this in a couple weeks actually, but If you had to, who would be your, like your, your superheroes For music creation?
Speaker 3:David Axelrod is probably my favorite producer all time. He's kind of, like you know, he's mostly jazz producer and I would say he's my north star, obviously with more of a hip-hop twist, but I feel like he was making a big hit Pop before hip-hop was hip-hop because his drums feel like, you know, the sample drum breaks that we used to always use. So he's number one for me. Who else? For rapping, doom is Top three for me of all time. He just always did things that impressed me and made me question things and, yeah, shout out to doom. Rest in peace. And I was lucky enough to do a remix for him, kind of in his prime in like 2005. So that was Incredible blessing. I wish I were to do that. So that was incredible blessing. I wish I would have got to work with him, work with him, but Wasn't in the cards but I was blessed enough to get that remix out on vinyl.
Speaker 3:Who else? Who else? Who else I know like the obvious choice is Dilla for 90% of beat makers, I know, and the reason why I never say Dilla in these questions is because, like he didn't have as big of an impact on me as a producer because I was already making beats for like eight or nine years when came on the scene. I appreciate Dilla, obviously Credibly talented, but like he was never someone that I like. Early we talked about how I mimicked and stole from Big Daddy Kane. Like the producers, I mimicked and stole was like Marley Maul and Pete Rock and Premier and, to a lesser extent, rza, but Dilla kind of came after when I was already kind of like Developing my own style. But Dilla said dude, there's no denying it, another superhero would be Prince Paul. Q-tip was very influential to me. Yeah, I'm gonna leave it there because I'll probably just run down names for the next hour. There's so many, there's a lot of incredible, incredibly talented musicians Out in the universe. Yeah, and we recently just just lost 45 King.
Speaker 2:So Do you have an impact on On you as well? Or yeah, for sure, that was my era, and like the stuff he did with Queen Latifah.
Speaker 3:The 1900 number everyone knows that beat. That's crazy. Wow man, I was a kid listening to that song.
Speaker 2:So I was like I didn't know who made it. I'm thinking you know, like a Pete Rock or DJ Premier made that, but who is? 45 King, yeah. So he still played that song. He was 45 King, yeah.
Speaker 3:So he still played that joint in clubs today and still gets a crowd going. It's kind of crazy.
Speaker 2:Man, man, his memory will live on, man, so rest in peace. 45 King. So you know, as we, 2023 is about to come to a close, what should the internet's look out for from? From cryptic one for the rest of either 2023 and then going into the new year 2024.
Speaker 3:Well, right now it's shows. I got a show December 9th in Brooklyn. I got a show it don't out lounge on November, november 25th Saturday to last Saturday the month and I think there may be one more show in December. But other than that, I'm trying to finally get the physicals for new beginning Out before the end of this year, fingers crossed. Other than that, there's a lot of projects I have, but it's kind of hard to know what's next because none of them are finished. I do have a wrap record that's like 80% done, which is the third part of a trilogy of records called the world according to. So this is the final installment of that and it's. Do we have time? I could just explain what that is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so like the first world according to was Literally, I just kind of did a similar limitation, time limitation thing. It was like, all right, every week I'm gonna make a beat, I'm a recorder verse and I'm a shoot a video and upload it to Instagram by the end of the week. So I did that for I know maybe nine or ten weeks straight. Then I had all these verses recorded and some of them I added another verse and like that's what became the first album, and then I kind of the second one. I kind of did something similar and the third one. I started off doing something similar and then I started getting in my head like man, I want to make this better. So I've been kind of sitting on it for a couple of years now. But yeah, I have all the artworks done for it. I have ideas for the merch already. I just need to get off my ass and finish the actual music side of it, which is funny that that's the last thing. Yeah, maybe two more songs to write and then it's done. So I'm hoping to get that out in first quarter or second quarter of next year. The other big thing that's happening next year it's the 20 year anniversary. Crazy of anti-Movie strip theory and I'm gonna do something special for you. I don't know what yet, but it's most likely gonna be physical. I don't know what yet, but it's most likely gonna be physical because, um, I mean, I still have vinyl here of that. But I want to do like a special anniversary edition where I'm probably gonna put like music that didn't make the album on it, because I still have songs from you know, I released that in 2004, but I made it in like 99 or 2000, most of the songs. So it's a long ass albums, literally 72 minutes a thing. Whatever the limit was you could put on a CD. I was like I'm gonna use every second, yeah, so like I had other songs I wanted to put on it that just couldn't fit. So Maybe I'll figure out a way to release those. But, um, yeah, I think that that's most of the, the plan that's set in motion.
Speaker 3:Other than that, a lot of shows, I, I do my. I throw shows as well, a show called digital dust. So I want to throw more of those. But I really want to get out of the, the position of performing at every one of those, because I don't know if you ever thrown shows before, but it's. It's stressful enough to throw a show but then have to perform and wrangle all the performers and Handle the marketing and the flyers and you know video and sound like. It's too much for one person man. I don't know why. I do it self-foot. Yeah, it is what it is. So that that's another big thing for next year.
Speaker 3:I'm trying to build a team, so if anyone in New York City beat maker or not that wants to be involved with throwing shows, hit me up. I'ma be a hundred percent honest. Yeah, probably ain't gonna be no money in it for a while, because I ain't making no money doing that shit. I'm doing that shit strictly to to get people on stages and Get. Try and build this community up up even more than it is. The community here is really dope, but I I sense that, um, that it could be bigger and I want to like do whatever I can to like help, help People have a bigger and better scene than I had.
Speaker 2:Yes, bigger is. It's not about the greed is, it's about the dream, you know. So, yeah, I get it. Building up, building and connecting With other creatives man, that's I Mean. I know a lot of people put a lot of emphasis on you know getting paid when you performing and stuff like that, but just connecting at these events and you know Talking to your fans and becoming a fan of that, you know the people that are performing like I Think that's bigger than you know just getting paid, you know to perform some songs and stuff like that. So, but that's just me, you know, that's just me, that's.
Speaker 3:I agree a million percent. But what I do want to say is I was talking about the people like helping put the shows together, not getting paid. I make sure that I pay my performers, even if it's not not much, you know, I like you're gonna get at least like a meal or or your Uber ride home or something like I want to Kind of that's one of the things in the beat scene. Like I came up in the underground rap scene right, so like I was a rapper and I did a lot of shows for free and it took me a long time to start getting paid shows and I realized that the people who were really capitalizing on Making money doing it, it was never the artist, it was always the venues. Like they you know people would come and buy drinks and you know Whatever percentage of ticket sales or whatever would all go to the venues and and that started to bother me. So I'm like at least let's throw the artist a bone, like something, and I just kind of want to.
Speaker 3:That's one of my missions for next year. It's to kind of change that narrative and like get other promoters on the same page, to like if you can break your artists off a little something you know like and and and help it grow until that little something becomes a bigger something and and it's it's got to start somewhere. You know, and and I am, I'm all for doing free shows. I do free shows. I did a free show last week, donut lounge. I don't get paid for that, but the shows that I throw I want to show people that it's possible to to get a little bit of money doing it and, and I'm hoping it that people follow suit. And you know, the free shows are a necessity, but there can also be paid ones too. So yeah, hey, joe.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, Okay. So how can, how can you know the internet's tap into you? You know where could they find you? You know any websites, things like that the website.
Speaker 3:I I feel weird calling a website because really just my store at the moment Um, it's cryptic one net. That's O N A One is spelled out cryptics, like the normal way you spell cryptic note, like K's or anything. It's C R Y P T I C O N E net. Then the main place where I'm active is Instagram. It's Crip uno, which is Crip underscore uno. That's a main place and you know, if you search me on Spotify, apple music or bandcamp, you'll find me on all of those. I'm phasing out the merch on bandcamp, trying to just sell digital stuff there, because All the merch is just gonna be from my website. But yeah, those are the main places.
Speaker 3:And in sidechain society, if y'all like I can't stress this enough and I don't get a cut of anyone who joined sidechain society but if you want to talk, to beat makers and learn Whether it's mixing, whether it's business, whether it's, you know Trading sounds whatever it is and be a part of something that's like some Really dope shit, hit up sidechain society like we've. We've gotten to the point where we've done a couple of like producer retreats, like earlier in the summer In Atlanta we got like an Airbnb and there was like I don't know, 10 or 14 producers in a crib just making music for you know, like a week or two, and then controller eyes happen. You got to play there and it's it. I've been doing this for a while. That's been one of the biggest life changes for me is being a part of sidechain. So shout out to sidechain and everyone who's a member, and especially Stolen drums, for putting it together, giving us a space to to be nerds together.
Speaker 2:Yeah, to be nerds, yeah, it's all right to be a nerd man. We are, I saw. We always nerds anyway. We keep learning, you know. I mean.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, shout out to stolen drums, man. I've been seeing like they came to japan a couple years ago and I was supposed to go to the show but I had to work that night, so I was. I missed them, man. It was right before um COVID happened too. So, but, um, yeah, man, one day I'm gonna make it down there. No, so we can, I can, you know, try and be a part of that festivities, because it just looks like an incredible atmosphere. So, um, to be a part of.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, man, well, um, cryptic one. I want to say thank you for your time and thank you for Um continuing to just Re-evolve. You know, to evolve into, you know doing so many different things Um expressing yourself, but then also just Giving it out to the world. Um, whether it be, you know, something that you're not feeling too good about, or Um some of the stuff that you are feeling good about, um, you express it, you put it through song, you put it out there to the world and I guarantee it's, you know it's helping people, whether they Send you a message or not? Um, it is. It is helping people, man. So I really appreciate you and you know, if there's any final thing that you would say to you know, the beat mutants, um, of the multiverse man, what would that be?
Speaker 3:um, the one big thing is just be yourself, man like. However, however, you have to do it. Just just be yourself and things will fall in line because At the end of the day, you're the only you, so you may as well be you like it's. I know I said earlier, copy and steal from other people, that's just the learning process to get to know how to express yourself. But like it can't stress it enough Uh, like, that's the number one thing is be you. Even if it's weird and doesn't fit in in A space that that you want to be a part of, it's still going to shine through.
Speaker 1:If you're just 100, authentically yourself, you you, you, yeah, but I'm rabble's, all the spools of the threat before needle and teetering, propped upon the ledge of deceiving One of the tread ties ain't Todd Nick dead, no traction, icy floor crashing. Only see that passion directly after he's cashed in. Won't tell you how to live. So don't tell me how to die, just tell me what I want to hear and lie, lie, lie. Just tell me what I want to hear and lie. Oh yeah, the truth set me free. Then the truth screams. This ape man hunt target me.
Speaker 1:I barely made it out the gates. They wore camouflage. Get up enough to damage gods through the skewed few of security. Camera fog cattle, prod, shocking catalog of options. Rose early to opt in god, parasols blocking sunbeams, shade in the face from her grace, sugar plum dreams. Erase all trace of that taste that's been Festering for years somewhere. There's a lesson here keep dreaming lucid, use it all to fuel some pep and cheer, and out I call bullshit part of my french fry pulpit creature. Leaving that to the next guy. Won't tell you how to live. So don't tell me how to die, just tell me what I want to hear and lie, lie, lie. Just tell me what I want to hear and lie, uh.
Speaker 3:Uh, yeah, this is all all very necessary, yeah, sometimes you just need to let it out, right? So check it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this is one of those apology songs where I apologize to all the love ones are done wrong. Harder me a sec because that list is tight, long, not on the way to start. These matters of the heart To those that pump the same blood, that love for your mom and dad don't always shine through. I hope you know it. If you did, now you do. I appreciate everything you've done and you do have such great friends, or. What times. I don't deserve you.
Speaker 1:Emotions on lockdown, dead bolts, curfews. Y'all help me down, even when I push you all away. Good looking, all that pushing getting put away today. This is the realest things I've ever wrote most people. I don't let them close. Emotionally bellicose, learning to let it go. Turn to work in progress, trying to get better though openness a foreign concept this is my first stamp in that passport, turning a new leaf.
Speaker 1:Sorry for being a bad sport, late to the airport, but better late than not at all. Sick of waiting for that other shoot is gonna fall Into that bird out west. Exactly my stress and the rest impossible to impress. Tough love when it was bested to make it out west for your ceremony should have tried harder. Bird better knows me. Into that wonder that is from the bottom of my blood pump. I got love for you, miss. You will always miss.
Speaker 1:From the second things dip to a mess. Couldn't handle that worse, I confess. Sorry, I could hardly say that enough. Sorry, saying it at all. Still kind of tough. Sorry, thank you all. Ain't ever caught my bluff. See these connections never getting snuff into my brethren.
Speaker 1:That arrested in that pirate code, that further region season, what's needed? I was kind of cold so tough to open up when shut down mode was all I know for the past few Cash you. Thank you for the second home Into them, fans and dig the tombs that suffer my abuse of updates and coming soon. All I can promise is I'll try and do better. It took me six years to see that tombs keep me glued together and y'all make me want to improve with every word I write to every sample court of groove. I know I'm crazy all of this. I'm very sure a little less crazy today than the days before. I owe you all. I owe you all fans and friends. I love you all. In the end I just ain't pretend and if I never say it again, just press play. Sorry. I don't know what else to say, but sorry, I could hardly say that enough. Sorry, saying it at all still kind of tough. Sorry, thank for y'all. I never caught my bluff, sorry. See these connections never get snuffed.
Speaker 2:You.
